BASEBALL; Rangers Say Rodriguez Is Going to Stay in Texas

The continuing trade proposal that would put Alex Rodriguez in Fenway Park and send Manny Ramirez to Texas may have finally suffered a fatal hit yesterday after the Rangers made a substantial financial concession three hours before a team-imposed deadline but could not entice the Red Sox to complete the deal.

The gap in the talks involving the two highest-paid players in baseball caused the Rangers to issue a statement saying that Rodriguez would be their shortstop in 2004 and for the Red Sox to follow that five minutes later with a two-sentence statement that said that ''no further discussions regarding this transaction are planned.''

Although Rodriguez is owed $179 million on his contract, nearly twice as much as the $97.5 million owed Ramirez, Tom Hicks, the Texas owner, had sought additional savings in the transaction and initially asked Boston to include $25 million in the trade to help pay part of Ramirez's contract.

Hicks decreased that amount to $15 million last week and, at 2 p.m. yesterday, said a lawyer who had been briefed on the negotiations, Hicks relented and told the Red Sox that he would not ask for any money in the deal. A Red Sox official said it was inaccurate to say Hicks fully eliminated cash from the talks, but offered no specifics. And a Texas official was skeptical that Hicks would have decreased his demands that much.

Regardless, the Red Sox, who placed Ramirez on irrevocable waivers last month and were thus willing to lose him for nothing in return, were unable to find a way yesterday to unload him and a minor league pitcher for the American League's most valuable player. After several weeks of pursuing Rodriguez, and preparing a second, and nearly as startling, deal that would send Nomar Garciaparra to the White Sox for Magglio Ordóñez, the Red Sox said no to Hicks's proposal.

''It is time for the Texas Rangers to look forward to the 2004 season with Alex Rodriguez as our shortstop and team leader,'' Hicks said in a statement. ''As we explored recent opportunities, we always said he would not be traded unless it made our team better, faster. Alex is the best player in baseball and we are excited to have him as a leader in the clubhouse and on the field.''

The Red Sox said their brief, joint statement came from John Henry, the team's owner; Tom Werner, the chairman; and Larry Lucchino, the chief executive. In it, the three said that ''there is nothing further to report relating to the consummation of a transaction between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers involving Alex Rodriguez.'' Left out of the statement was any mention of Ramirez.

If the Red Sox had acquired Rodriguez, he would have taken over the shortstop spot that Garciaparra manned in Boston since 1997. Meanwhile, the hard-hitting Ordóñez would have replaced Ramirez in the Boston outfield. But yesterday's impasse presumably kills that deal with the White Sox, at least for now, and may very well force the Red Sox to awkwardly welcome back two marquee players.

The Rodriguez-Ramirez negotiations had run into seeming dead ends before yesterday -- including a deadline Hicks issued last week -- and there is always a possibility that the discussions will be resurrected next week, next month or even in spring training. The teams, the players association and Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, have worked hard to pull off the deal and a framework for the trade is already in place.

But volatile exchanges between Hicks and Lucchino, and yesterday's failure to reach an agreement at a crucial moment, suggest that it will not be easy for this deal to get done.

When Boras was asked if he thought these discussions could be revived, he quickly said: ''Nope. Tom Hicks has said the 2004 season is in place and Alex is their shortstop. He told Alex that he made every concession he could to try and get him to a team that could win immediately. Now he has to run his organization.''

Boras said that Rodriguez, who would have forfeited $12 million to $13 million in restructuring his deal to accommodate Boston, was comfortable returning to Texas for the fourth year of his 10-year, $252 million contract. Still, Rodriguez has had a chilly relationship with Manager Buck Showalter and has been working the phones to try to find a one-way ticket out of Arlington.

Now the 28-year-old Rodriguez has to seriously entertain the likelihood that he will be back with a team that has finished last for three straight seasons instead of joining a club that made it to the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series and remains on an intense, and expensive, collision course with the Yankees.

''Alex just felt that Boston offered something that was a great deal,'' Boras said in a telephone interview. ''The fact that Boston didn't move in told him something he might not have known about Boston. The fact that the Rangers acted the way they did told him about them.''

Showalter has maintained that he has a solid relationship with Rodriguez and optimistically said yesterday that he did not anticipate problems with Rodriguez's return.

''Alex has a lot in common with everyone, a lot of the same hopes and dreams,'' Showalter said in a telephone interview. ''Alex wants everybody to be happy. Alex and Tom decided to go down an avenue and it didn't work out.''

For now, that is. And, maybe, for a lot longer.

INSIDE PITCH

Second baseman POKEY REESE, a two-time Gold Glove award winner, signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Red Sox yesterday. Reese diplomatically mentioned NOMAR GARCIAPARRA and ALEX RODRIGUEZ while discussing his next double-play partner. ''They are two Hall of Famers, two All-Stars, two great people,'' Reese said. ''I'm in a win-win situation.''